Dwelling, One Observes the Images; Acting, One Observes the Changes -- Reading the Chapter "The Sage Established the Hexagrams and Observed the Images" from the Upper Xici
A line-by-line reading of the second chapter of the Upper Xici. The sage's four acts -- establishing the hexagrams, observing the images, appending the statements, clarifying fortune and misfortune -- run in exact reverse order to the noble person's four acts -- observing the images, savoring the statements, observing the changes, savoring the divination. The four clauses "is the image of..." form a chain tracing effect back to cause; "the repose in which he dwells" echoes the Doctrine of the Mean's "dwelling in ease, awaiting the Mandate"; and the chapter closes by quoting the top line of hexagram Da You, "From Heaven comes its aid," gathering the whole into the two words compliance and good faith. Grounded in Confucian and Daoist thought, and drawing on the Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and the Zuo Tradition, it explores how the noble person finds repose between Heaven and Earth and acts amid change.
8 Savoring the Statements and Savoring the Divination: "Divination Alone Would Be Superfluous"
8.1 The Master's Demonstration
8.1.1 "Inconstant in His Virtue, He May Well Meet with Shame"
The "Zilu" chapter of the Analects records a passage in which the Master quotes the Changes: "The Master said: 'The people of the south have a saying: A person without constancy cannot even be a shaman or a healer. Well put! The line reads: Inconstant in his virtue, he may well meet with shame.' The Master said: 'Divination alone would be superfluous.'"
"Inconstant in his virtue, he may well meet with shame" is the line statement of the third line of hexagram Heng (Constancy). The Master first quotes the saying of the people of the south, that a person without constancy cannot even be a shaman or a healer, then quotes the line statement of the third line of Heng, that one who cannot hold constant to his virtue will meet with shame, and finally utters the words, "divination alone would be superfluous."
This passage is one of the rare instances in the Analects where the Master directly quotes a line statement. It happens to be a live demonstration, on the spot, of this chapter's "dwelling, he observes the images and savors their statements." The Master was not divining; he was, in the course of an ordinary conversation about the virtue of constancy, casually quoting a line statement. This is savoring the statements. The line statement had already been so thoroughly savored that it had become his own words -- speaking of constancy, he thought at once of hexagram Heng, thought at once of "inconstant in his virtue, he may well meet with shame." This is what savoring the statements looks like when carried to the point of becoming one with the statements themselves.
8.1.2 The Meaning of "Divination Alone Would Be Superfluous"
How should the four words "divination alone would be superfluous" be understood$20 Earlier commentators have offered differing accounts. One holds: for a person without constant virtue, there is no need to divine, since divining would be of no use anyway. Another holds: the principle stated in this line statement is already so plain that one knows the result without divining at all. In fact, the two readings amount to the same thing: for a person without constancy, there is no need to divine -- the result has already been stated plainly in the statement itself.
This line offers an extremely important gloss on this chapter's "acting, he observes the changes and savors the divination." This chapter says that when the noble person acts, he should savor the divination -- yet the Master says, "divination alone would be superfluous." Do these two contradict one another$21 They do not. The Master's meaning is: the statement has already been so thoroughly savored, the principle already so plain, that divination becomes superfluous. The person without constancy will inevitably meet with shame -- this requires no divination. The person with constancy will naturally be without shame -- this too requires no divination. Whatever divination could tell you, the statement has already told you.
So "savoring the divination" presupposes "savoring the statements." Once the statements have been thoroughly savored, once the principle is plain, divination becomes a confirmation of the statement rather than an inquiry into the unknown. The Master's "divination alone would be superfluous" is not a denial of divination; it states that once the savoring of statements is carried to its furthest point, divination naturally recedes into a secondary place. This is the natural transition from dwelling to acting: while dwelling, the statements are already thoroughly savored; while acting, the divination is merely a further savoring.
8.2 "One Skilled in the Changes Does Not Divine"
Master Xun said: "One skilled in the Songs does not need to expound it; one skilled in the Changes does not need to divine by it; one skilled in ritual propriety does not need to serve as its officiant -- their hearts are one and the same." One who is skilled in the Songs need not go on explaining it; one who is skilled in the Changes need not go on divining by it; one who is skilled in ritual propriety need not go on acting as the officiant at ceremonies. The hearts of these three are one and the same.
This line strikes the very same note as the Master's "divination alone would be superfluous." Why does one skilled in the Changes not divine$22 Because the principle of the Changes is already within his heart; when he meets with a matter, he naturally knows how to advance or withdraw, with no further need to divine. It is like one skilled in the Songs having no further need to explain them line by line, or one skilled in ritual propriety having no further need to serve as master of ceremonies. Once learning has been mastered, the tool itself can be set aside.
Master Xun says "their hearts are one and the same" -- in what way are the three alike$23 They are alike in that, in each case, what was once external has been transformed into what is now internal. The Songs is transformed into one's own feeling; ritual propriety is transformed into one's own conduct; the Changes is transformed into one's own wisdom. Transformed to this degree, the external acts of expounding, divining, and officiating all become superfluous. This chapter's "that in which he delights and which he savors is the statements on the lines" -- savoring the statements is precisely this process of transformation. Savored to the point of transformation, one becomes skilled in the Changes, and one may dispense with divination.
Yet note that what Master Xun says is "does not divine," not "must not divine." Not divining means having no need to divine, not being forbidden to divine. This chapter says, "acting, he observes the changes and savors the divination," and likewise imposes no prohibition on divination -- it merely treats divination as an act of savoring. Taken together: for one who has no need to divine, should he nonetheless divine, it remains merely a form of savoring. For one skilled in the Changes, divination is a form of savoring, not a dependency. This is the Confucian attitude toward divination: neither forbidding it, nor depending on it, but taking it as an object of savoring.
8.3 Savoring the Divination and Divining About Peril
8.3.1 Lady Mu Jiang's Self-Interpretation of Hexagram Sui
The Zuo Tradition records an event in the ninth year of Duke Xiang. Lady Mu Jiang of Lu, having been moved to the Eastern Palace, cast the milfoil stalks and obtained hexagram Gen changing at its second line, which the scribes read as hexagram Gen becoming hexagram Sui (Following). Sui carries the meaning of going forth, they said, and so she could leave. Lady Mu Jiang said: "No. This is spoken of in the Zhouyi: 'Sui: sublime, prevailing, advantageous, and steadfast -- without blame.' Sublimity is the greatest of bodily excellences; prevailing is the coming together of what is admirable; advantage is the harmony of what is right; steadfastness is the trunk of an affair. To embody benevolence is sufficient to lead others; to have admirable virtue is sufficient to accord with propriety; to bring advantage to things is sufficient to harmonize what is right; to be firm and steadfast is sufficient to carry an affair through. Being so, one cannot deceive with these words, and so, though one follows, one is without blame. Now, I am a woman who has taken part in disorder; being, from the first, in a lowly position and lacking in benevolence, I cannot be called sublime; not bringing peace to the state, I cannot be called prevailing; acting in a way that harms myself, I cannot be called advantageous; abandoning my position for wanton pleasure, I cannot be called steadfast. Those who possess these four virtues may follow and be without blame. I possess none of them -- how could this be Sui for me$24 Since I have chosen evil for myself, how could I be without blame$25 I shall surely die here, and shall not get out."
This passage of Lady Mu Jiang's is an outstanding example of savoring the statements correcting savoring the divination. The scribes, going by the result of the divination, said she could leave; Lady Mu Jiang, going by the principle within the statement, said she could not. She measured herself, one by one, against the four virtues of sublimity, prevailing, advantage, and steadfastness, found herself possessed of not a single one, and therefore concluded that she could not possibly attain the blamelessness of hexagram Sui. The divination said fortune; the statement said no fortune -- she trusted the statement, not the divination.
This is precisely the relationship between "savoring the statements" and "savoring the divination" in this chapter. Once a result is divined, it is not to be taken and used at once; it must be savored through the statement. The statement says that only one who possesses the four virtues is without blame -- one must therefore ask oneself whether one possesses them. If not, the fortune of the divination does not count as fortune. Lady Mu Jiang was a woman who had erred, yet she had read the Changes to such a depth that she could use the statement to examine herself -- this is precisely the practice of "regret and remorse are the images of anxious care." She knew where her own fault lay, and knew that the fortune of the divination did not belong to her. This is savoring the divination without being deceived by it.
8.3.2 "The Changes Cannot Be Used to Divine About Peril"
The affair of Nan Kuai, recorded in the twelfth year of Duke Zhao in the Zuo Tradition, has already been quoted above. About to rebel, he divined "a yellow lower garment, sublime good fortune," and took this to mean great fortune. Zifu Huibo said to him: "I have studied this before. Where the matter is one of loyalty and good faith, it may hold; otherwise it will surely fail. Outwardly strong, inwardly mild -- this is loyalty; harmonious in leading with steadfastness -- this is good faith. Hence it says, 'a yellow lower garment, sublime good fortune.' Yellow is the color of the center; the lower garment is the ornament of what is below; sublimity is the greatest of what is good. If the center is not loyal, one does not attain that color; if what is below is not deferential, one does not attain that ornament; if the affair is not good, one does not attain that highest degree. When outer and inner accord in harmony, this is loyalty; when one leads the affair with good faith, this is deference; when one holds fast to all three virtues, this is goodness -- without these three, one cannot merit it. Moreover, the Changes cannot be used to divine about peril -- what affair, then, could this concern$26 And could it, in any case, be adorned so$27 Where the center is admirable, one may be yellow; where what is above is admirable, one may be sublime; where what is below is admirable, one may be the lower garment. Only when all three are complete may one cast the stalks. Should there be any deficiency, then though the milfoil says fortune, it is not yet so."
Zifu Huibo's words follow the very same pattern as Lady Mu Jiang's. Fortune has been divined, but one must ask what affair is being undertaken. If it is an affair of loyalty and good faith, then fortune is truly fortune; if it is an affair of walking in peril, then even a divined fortune is not fortune. "The Changes cannot be used to divine about peril" means that within the order of Heaven and Earth that the Changes displays, there is no place for peril. One who walks in peril stands outside that order, and the fortune and misfortune of the Changes do not apply to him.
Taken together, these two episodes draw a boundary around this chapter's "savoring the divination." The precondition for savoring the divination is "the repose in which the noble person dwells is the order of the Changes." For one who rests secure in order, divining while acting has meaning. For one who does not rest secure in order and walks in peril instead, divination has no meaning -- however fortunate the result, it is merely a lucky windfall. This links the first half of this chapter to the second half: dwelling in repose within order is the precondition for savoring the divination; failing to dwell, and walking in peril instead, turns divination into divining about peril. The Doctrine of the Mean's "the noble person dwells in ease and awaits the Mandate; the petty person walks in peril and hopes for a stroke of luck" is precisely a summary of this very point.
8.4 The Counsel of Man and the Counsel of Spirits
The final chapter of the Lower Xici says: "Heaven and Earth established their positions, and the sage brought his capacities to completion. The counsel of man and the counsel of the spirits were joined, and the common people took part in that capacity." Heaven and Earth established their positions, and the sage brought his own capacities to completion. The counsel of man and the counsel of the spirits are used together, and the common people, too, are able to take part. This "counsel of man and counsel of the spirits" can serve as a summary of this chapter's savoring of the statements and savoring of the divination.
Savoring the statements is the counsel of man. The statements were appended by the sage; they are human wisdom, and to savor the statements is to apply human wisdom in deliberation. Savoring the divination is the counsel of the spirits. Divination inquires of the milfoil stalks and the tortoise shell, seeking beyond the bounds of human wisdom; to savor the divination is to draw upon the counsel of the spirits for reference. The Xici says the counsel of man and the counsel of the spirits are used together; this chapter says savoring the statements and savoring the divination are used together -- the two accord.
But the order of the two differs in a telling way. This chapter first speaks of savoring the statements, and only after speaks of savoring the divination; first speaks of dwelling, and only after speaks of acting. The counsel of man comes first, the counsel of the spirits after. This accords with the attitude of the Master's "divination alone would be superfluous" and Master Xun's "one skilled in the Changes does not divine": the counsel of man takes the lead, the counsel of the spirits assists. Only once the counsel of man is exhausted does the counsel of the spirits have meaning. To seek the counsel of the spirits before the counsel of man has been exhausted is precisely the kind of divination that Lady Mu Jiang criticized in herself, and that Zifu Huibo warned against.
The phrase "the common people took part in that capacity" is likewise significant. When the counsel of man and the counsel of the spirits are used together, the common people too can take part. This means the Changes does not belong to the sage alone; it can be shared, so that the common people too may take part in it. This chapter says, "the sages established the hexagrams and observed the images," and also, "dwelling, the noble person observes the images" -- sage and noble person spoken of together are precisely this same point. The sage makes it, the noble person learns it, the common people take part in it. The Way of the Changes is meant to be handed down, generation after generation. And the manner of its handing down is precisely what this chapter describes: dwelling, one observes the images and savors the statements; acting, one observes the changes and savors the divination. This is a road that anyone at all may walk.